I'm new here, my interest is in building model boats/ships, I have a rough plan for a "Great Lakes Freighter" and the plan shows the bottom as being flat. Firstly is this correct ? and secondly does anyone have a photo of one in a fairly close up position and perhaps one in a dry dock ?

Flat !!!??? I have no idea what you are looking at but, There are many reports of Great Lakes freighters running aground. What is the name of the ship you are modelling ?. Go here www.boatnerd.com and look through the pictures section there.

Great lakes freighters have and rounded bottom which is why ports and channels have to be dredged deep enough for the bottom of the ship to safely clear the gorund otherwise the ship would run aground causing the ship to be most likely stranded and/or damaged. The only vessels that would have flat bottoms would be Mississippi River tugs and barges.

Good evening, as a second engineer presently working on Great Lakes ships for 29 yrs, they are all flat bottom, I have attended many dry dockings. A lot of the newer vessels use Kort nozzles for steering but the new vessel for Algoma Marine all have rudders.